How to watch the HTC Vive VR CES press conference, and what to expect

Monday is a massive day of press conferences at CES 2019, and nestled among them is HTC. The company’s livestreaming its press conference on Jan. 7 at 1 p.m. PT (4 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. UK) and CNET will be there. You can watch everything just by staying on this page.

HTC has already delivered its own big tease of… well, something.

A bag of gear, a blue logo, and the rest is up to our imagination. But HTC has used previous CES shows to make major VR announcements. And in a year where Facebook’s Oculus platform is largely taking CES off as the company awaits the spring 2019 release of its next mobile VR headset, Oculus Quest, HTC Vive has a chance to steal the VR spotlight.

Here’s what to expect.

HTC’s Vive Pro headset was announced a year ago at CES.

Sean Hollister/CNET

A continued push for enterprise and location-based VR entertainment

A lot of HTC’s recent Vive VR moves have been aimed at enterprise, not consumers. Last year’s higher-resolution and optionally wireless Vive Pro headset wasn’t made for everyday VR gamers: It was intended for professionals who can afford it. Similarly, the company’s mobile standalone Vive Focus headset arrived in the US as an enterprise- and developer-targeted device, unlike the consumer push of Facebook’s Oculus Go.

Maybe that sounds boring, but think about the amazing rides and VR theme park experiences that use Vive and its larger-scale full-room tracking, from Dave & Buster’s Jurassic World ride to location-based VR pop-ups.

If Vive announces brand-new hardware, it may be more likely to be mobile, especially with the Vive Pro just arriving last year. The Vive Focus could continue seeing evolution, too. HTC is exploring using more advanced controllers for a greater range of motion.

A head start on mixed reality?

The Vive platform has been able to explore some aspects of AR in a VR headset, mixing reality by using its external cameras to blend real-world parameters into VR. It’s not the same idea as a Magic Leap headset or a Hololens, but if HTC is fully enterprise-focused, maybe the company will start thinking more like Microsoft in terms of advancing mixed reality creative tools and inputs. Exploring a way to mix VR with some AR would be a good way to surprise at CES, at any rate.